You're never too old to join a band.....age is all in the mind.....unless the bodies getting a bit past it....go for it we say! Who told us what age you can do certain things anyway....wonder who these people are? Not that we are taking any notice of course, the main message behind our radio show is that women of a certain age, far from being silent, past it and relegated to Room 101, are actually very sexy and sassy, totally irreverent, not easily impressed....and past really caring what other people say are 'the rules'. So we've got a new career planned for when Nick Clegg leave politics - we're going to be in a band with him. We can't sing but we can play tambourine, well shake one around a bit anyway, and can generally swan around. We may be in Zimmer frames by the time Nick leaves politics of course....but as long as we can keep swanning, we will.
We interviewed Nick Clegg in a small and noisy constituency office, and he bounced in the room, a bit like Tigger, and was surprising friendly, especially considering he's had a long day of meetings.
We were doing an up close and personal interview with him, trying to find out a bit more about the man behind the politics. We asked him about his wife Miriam who is a powerful professional in her own right and he told us that he had to ask permission from her Spanish family who live deep in rural Spain....he told us he asked her to marry him in Spanish so we asked him what he said in Spanish and he point blank refused to repeat it.....but he did tell us where he proposed to his wife.....which was on the platform of small rural train station in Lincolnshire called Rauceby......and when Livvy expressed surprise that he would consider that romantic, he got a bit defensive and said he only had eyes for Miriam.....which was really sweet.
One thing about Nick is that he seems comfortable with a powerful woman and especially with a powerful wife, and seems to genuinely understand the frantic juggling needed to keep a modern family going....which was fairly reassuring....he's not totally in an ivory tower.
We had read that he loved the musician Prince....and found out that when he was a student at the University of Minnesota, Prince used to live in the area and had a reputation for popping up in bars and playing impromptu gigs....so Nick would hang around waiting for him to show up and one time he left and Prince showed up ten minutes later he was very disappointed.
When we found out he was a frustrated musician....having played the drums for a while, and wanting to do more drumming when he left politics....we had to suggest to him that perhaps he might like to form a band with us then called Nick and the Swans.....with him drumming and singing like Phil Collins and us basically swanning around like we usually do, maybe doing the odd backing humming. He agreed that a "plan had been hatched" but we didn't realise the pun till his PR man groaned very loudly.....and at the end of the interview when Livvy said "just checking we are definitely on for Nick and the Swans.....he agreed that it was "basically unstoppable", so there you go, in a few years time....a new career for all of us.
Which leads on to our next blog which will be about Bryan Ferry, who we talked to about his feelings of being older and still performing....and whether he'd like us on his new record cover instead of his usual glamorous models.
To listen to the latest show click here
